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Hotel du Marc - Courtesy press office

Pablo Reinoso's art work - Courtesy press office

Hotel du Marc - Courtesy press office

Once the residence in the mid-19th century of Edouard Verlé, business partner of the formidabile Mme. Clicquot, founder of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, the Hotel du Marc, just a short walk from Reims Cathedral, is now open after an extensive restoration.

Acquired in 1907 by the champagne maker to host its more prestigious clients who came to visit the famous cellars, the building restored by Bruno Moinard combines gems of antiquity with works of contemporary art, like the portrait of madame Clicquot covered in polka-dots by Yayoi Kusama, commissioned to the Japanese artist in 2006, an installation (Gloriette) in the garden by the Campagna brothers, and a wood sculpture by Pablo Reinoso.

While the theatrical reception hall, with its black and gold boiserie and a giant chandelier suspended over a table for 18, and the ultra-contemporary tasting room (where the maison’s best vintages are presented nearby a a foosball table in the yellow-orange trademark colors), are decidedly striking, the real treat consists in the 5 bedrooms. The Japanese room is celadon green, with antique kimonos hanging on the wall; the Italian room is an homage to the ceramics of Fornasetti; the Russian room echoes the colors of the sea, for it was by sea that Veuve Clicquot sent its goods to the court of the tzars. Then there’s a yellow room with a bathing area as big as a hammam, and another that preserves the pre-restoration décor of the hotel.

Lastly, there’s the bedroom designed byMathieu Lehanneur, built in keeping with the criteria of ideal sleep as determined by medical institutions specializing in sleep disorders, featuring a constant temperature of 19° C, a system for diffusing the ozonated sea air and ‘white noise’ to isolate the sleeper from any and all disturbing sounds.

The Hotel du Marc is also ‘virtuous’ from the ecological standpoint, in keeping with the company’s overall strategy: the temperature is kept constant by geothermal energy, while the solar panels of the nearby corporate headquarters provide electricity and hot water.